community – Be Still…

Ecclesiastes 4:7-12 – Community

Read Ecclesiastes 4:7-12

“It takes a village.” If you haven’t heard that phrase before, it’s another way of acknowledging the communities of support we have in our lives. It’s especially helpful when it kicks in for parents of young children. We never have enough hands or time for carpooling when you can’t be in two places at once!

Solomon is also troubled by those who don’t have a community around them. He questions how they can muster up the motivation to work if they don’t have a community to support. Everyone will have a different motivation for working, it’s not always a race to have great wealth. I suppose that’s easy for me to say as a missionary and pastor’s wife. Wealth is certainly not my motivation.

Ezra 10 – A Fresh Start

Read Ezra 10

The book of Ezra closes with a plan of cleansing agreed to by the people. Our last reading identified the problem, and we saw Ezra’s response was to earnestly pray. Today’s reading picks up right there with many other people joining Ezra in his lament.

Were you surprised at how easily the people agreed with Ezra? The plan was put in place to remove the pagan spouses from the land to cleanse the land of foreigners who would not share in the devotion to the LORD, respecting his laws and decrees. The purpose of this cleansing was to remove the “poison” of unbelief from spreading.

Hebrews 10:19-25 – Live In Community

Read Hebrews 10:19-25

The Preacher has given us a lot to think about over the past several readings. How do you respond knowing “Jesus opened a new and life-giving way” giving us the ability to “go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him”? Have you let the magnitude of that promise really sink in?

Maybe you’re even asking yourself, “now what?” When our hearts start to overflow with gratitude and admiration, we call that praise and worship. Our response can simply be to honor God with our worship. When we fully trust God, we start to see the blessings in our lives more clearly. We can’t help but want to give thanks and praise to God.